Ugandan leader sees polls victory, slams his critics

RWAKITURA – Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, rejecting charges he is unjustifiably clinging to power after two decades as leader, predicted on Saturday that voters would re-elect him by a landslide next week.

Once hailed as an African success story, the 62-year-old former rebel hopes to extend a stay in office his critics say has become increasingly autocratic. Speaking at his ranch in western Uganda, Museveni dismissed opinion polls showing a tight race ahead of Thursday’s vote as a “joke” and denied his image had suffered.”We the freedom fighters of Africa lost confidence long ago in the international community,” Museveni said.”If the international community has lost confidence in us, then that is a compliment because they are habitually wrong.”The opposition says the retired general is determined to win re-election at any cost, pointing to treason and rape charges against his top rival and the scrapping last year of term limits that would have barred him from running again.Museveni denied that and said that if challenger Kizza Besigye, who is still contesting the election despite the charges against him, beat him he would retire.”If I am sent home by my own people, I will go,” Museveni told reporters.”My cows are waiting for me.”That looks unlikely, with a poll published on Saturday by Uganda’s independent Monitor newspaper giving Museveni the lead with 47 per cent, compared with 36 per cent for Besigye.The new survey represented a 3 per cent fall for Museveni and a 3 per cent gain for his opponent since the last Monitor poll in mid-January.The president said the figures were crude and inaccurate and that private polls by his ruling Movement party showed him winning by a much greater margin.”The Movement is one of the most popular, strongest political forces in the world,” he said.Pre-elections tensions are rising in Uganda and exploded on Wednesday in the capital Kampala when two supporters of Besigye’s Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party were shot dead by a soldier.- Nampa-ReutersSpeaking at his ranch in western Uganda, Museveni dismissed opinion polls showing a tight race ahead of Thursday’s vote as a “joke” and denied his image had suffered.”We the freedom fighters of Africa lost confidence long ago in the international community,” Museveni said.”If the international community has lost confidence in us, then that is a compliment because they are habitually wrong.”The opposition says the retired general is determined to win re-election at any cost, pointing to treason and rape charges against his top rival and the scrapping last year of term limits that would have barred him from running again.Museveni denied that and said that if challenger Kizza Besigye, who is still contesting the election despite the charges against him, beat him he would retire.”If I am sent home by my own people, I will go,” Museveni told reporters.”My cows are waiting for me.”That looks unlikely, with a poll published on Saturday by Uganda’s independent Monitor newspaper giving Museveni the lead with 47 per cent, compared with 36 per cent for Besigye.The new survey represented a 3 per cent fall for Museveni and a 3 per cent gain for his opponent since the last Monitor poll in mid-January.The president said the figures were crude and inaccurate and that private polls by his ruling Movement party showed him winning by a much greater margin.”The Movement is one of the most popular, strongest political forces in the world,” he said.Pre-elections tensions are rising in Uganda and exploded on Wednesday in the capital Kampala when two supporters of Besigye’s Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party were shot dead by a soldier.- Nampa-Reuters